I find it really challenging for me to do my work in a timely manner. I’ve always found myself being a last-minute person and waiting till the day before, the morning of, or even the hour before to get essential work done. Whether it was studying for tests, doing assignments, or simply messaging a friend back, I have always found it challenging to just do it. There’s always that voice, “Eh, I’ll do it later.”
As I sit here writing this the day of, I find myself in the same situation. I am procrastinating and because of that I decided to watch a TED talk on the mind of a procrastinator. Tim Urban’s talk has over 53 million views and is titled, “Inside the mind of a master procrastinator.” Urban is known for being one of the internet’s most popular writers through his blog Wait But Why.
He opens by discussing his college thesis. He planned to start chunking away at his paper all year, but time began to disappear. First, he had a year, then eight months, six, four, and finally only 72 hours. Urban wrote a 90-page thesis in 72 hours by pulling two all-nighters. He pokes a fun at himself and it’s important to acknowledge his relationship with the audience. Urban has fantastic charisma and uses many jokes to relate to this world of procrastinators. He even says that he believes everyone is a procrastinator just some deal with it better than others.
Once again, he is comical in his approach and brings up the idea of the “instant gratification monkey.” This is the voice in our head that tells us to watch TikTok or Instagram reels when we know we should be doing an assignment. He says that the only thing the monkey fears is the panic monster. This is the voice that freaks out when there are imminent social consequences or other negative results. He addresses that procrastination leads to us feeling guilty during fun activities. How can we have fun when we know we should’ve finished that paper we had two months to write?
While Tim Urban is a fantastic public speaker with an absurd amount of charisma, there is sadly not much to take away from his talk. Yeah, it’s hilarious and relatable, but there is no actionable advice for making a difference with these issues. Procrastination is a blackhole. It’s scary and it sucks to have the same experience over and over again. If anyone has tips, I’d be happy to listen.
John,
I can relate to what you expressed at the beginning of your blog post. I often find myself in the same situation and having to dig myself out of it by pulling an all-nighter or just handing in something late. I have found a lot of success in curbing my procrastination by splitting work up into chunks instead of looking at it as a whole. Also, something that I have been working on is not only how to stop my procrastination, but to stop beating myself up if it does happen because that only makes the situation worse in the long run.
Sophia
Hi John,
I am also a massive procrastinator in everything I do. It usually comes back to get me, though, so I’ve been trying to get better in college, because I know it’ll only get worse here. The thing is, I always am the most focused and do my best work when I a have a deadline to reach. Does he share any good methods to avoid this?
John,
I really enjoy the conversational tone of your blog and how relatable it is; I too can be a chronic procrastinator. I actually think I have seen this Ted Talk before, but I really enjoyed reading about how you processed and analyzed this speech. I wish that I had more tips but sadly I am in your shoes!
– Amalia